I am reading from a "one line harmony"
of the Palm Sunday event that is depicted in Matthew 21, Mark 11, Luke
19 and John 12. A "one line harmony" has only one story line in contrast
to a "three or four-line harmony" which has several lines -- three or four
-- put side by side. A "one line harmony" mixes them into a single
story-line. Some would say that it is irreverent to the Word of God
to do this. But if it is, so would be making a topical textbook or
an outlined Bible, or even a sermon that draws from, first one text and
then another.
This morning I would like to think about this event that gave us the descriptive
name of "Palm Sunday." It was exactly 1 week before Easter, or what
should be called, the "festival of the Lord's resurrection" rather than
"Easter," a name borrowing from a pagan deity.
On what we celebrate as Palm Sunday, Jesus staged a royal entrance into
the city of David because he was a king and this was the kind of
Messiah-King that he was.
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Lo, your king comes to you, triumphant
and victorious is he, humble and riding
on an ass, on a colt, the foal of an ass. -- Zechariah 9.9
I. WHAT WAS HAPPENING HERE?
1. It was a symbolic entrée into the Royal City of David
by the messianic "Son of David." The times were right so that the
multitude expected him. It is thought that half of the multitude
accompanied him from Bethany and Bethphage coming over the Mount of Olives
by an ancient path within feet of the school were I lived and studied in
1962 and '63 in a building that was already in existence 1,924 years earlier
when this event came to pass.
2. The disciples had gotten a donkey colt and it's mother and in a public
gesture, almost certainly imitating the history in the last hours of King
David's life when one of his sons -- Adonijah, by name -- was engineering
a palace coup, in which Adonijah was intent on seizing the throne as soon
as David died. In I Kings 1, David heard about this plot and
ordered Solomon to take David's own mule and to go publicly into Jerusalem
to some sacred location in the Jerusalem of the time, and there be anointed
by the prophet Nathan as king over all Israel and Judah and to be acclaimed
King by the multitude.
Jesus is following this ancient coronation procedure, though there had
not been a King in the land since 586 B.C. at the beginning of the Babylonian
Captivity when Zedekiah's sons were killed before his eyes and then
his eyes were put out and he was carried off to Babylon. Clearly,
the Zechariah passage which I read to you a moment ago and which is quoted
by Matthew and was included in the combined text I read to you out
of the four Gospels, indicates that not only was Zechariah 9: 9 a prophecy
of this event but that these people saw the connection between Zechariah
9: 9 and what was dramatically played out before them on this day when
Jesus came into Jerusalem riding on a donkey.
3. And the multitudes responded joyously to the symbolism, and with
great abandon threw their garments on the rocky path to form a carpet for
the royal procession. And they put other of their garments on the
colt and on its mother that Jesus rode on -- probably, first on the colt
and then transferring to the grown animal for some reason that is not clear.
And all along the way those who stood along side of the procession waved
palm branches and cried out with those who followed him, acclaiming him
King, even as the ancient multitude had acclaimed Solomon as king 1001
years before that date.
Matthew and Mark and Luke depict this event from the point of view of
the people coming to Jerusalem with Jesus. John, in his Gospel, depicts
it from the point of view of those coming out of the city to meet
him. Probably people had run on ahead of Jesus, spreading the word
that the "Messiah" was about to enter Jerusalem and this had multiplied
the crowds coming out to meet him. Meanwhile, more and more people
joined his retinue as he progressed into the city. And the multitude
cried out: "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!" "Hosanna
to the Son of David!" "Hosanna in the highest!" "Blessed is he who
comes in the name of the Lord!"
4. And the Savior was offering himself to all who would receive him
as Messiah-king. No doubt there were tear-stains still on his clothes
from his weeping over Jerusalem earlier in the trip down from the
Mount of Olives, (Luke 19: 41) -- weeping because of the Jerusalem establishment's
rejection of him as Savior, Messiah or as a prophet. That establishment
was made up of distinguished religious persons who had a lot of religion
but religion that was without grace. And yet these true remnants
of the people of God joyously and enthusiastically accepted him.
As Matthew 21: 12 shows, Jesus led the procession into the temple, the
symbol of the ancient religion which was, this very week in history, becoming
Christianity, combining the religion of the patriarchs and prophets and
all the godly saints of history-past, merged with the true church of the
future made up of Jews and Gentiles from every tongue, tribe and nation.
5. The meaning of all of this is surely to be connected with the crowning
of Solomon. This new Solomon was the grand fulfillment and desire
of all the ages B.C. Not just Matthew, the Jewish Gospel, but all
four of the parallel accounts in Matthew 21, Mark 11, Luke 19 and
John 12 specifically speak of him as the King of Israel. He was the
last king and the grand fulfillment of the monarchy which now would become
an eternal theocracy. This is the claim in the assertion that he
was "the Son of David." As the hymn puts it:
Hail to the Lord's anointed, great David's greater son!
Hail in the time appointed, his reign on earth begun.
He comes to break oppression, and set the captive free,
To take away transgression, and rule in equity.
It was a kingship. Only it was not a political kingship. It
was a messianic kingship in which he was the Prophet/Savior/King.
He was the continuation of that 1,034 year dynasty of the House of David
and the fulfillment of it -- forever and forever. Furthermore, it
was a completely unique kingship, for it will last forever, with the dear
Saviour ever living to be the guarantor of their eternal salvation, on
the strength of his God/man person and eternal reigning, but also on the
basis of his atonement for the sins of his people which was about to take
place a mere five days in the future of this event.
Do you see the drama here? -- the working of God's grace, bringing people
to a knowledge and convicton of the Saviorhood of the Lord and making them
into true disciples.
II. WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS HISTORICAL EVENT TO US WHO ARE,
HISTORICALLY, SO FAR REMOVED FROM IT?
1. Five days after this event had transpired, in a rush of
events, Jesus was rejected by the religious leaders, and at their instigation
was crucified by the Romans; dying, bearing the sins of his true people
of that time and of the ages since then and of the ages going back to our
common ancestor, Adam. That Savior, King and Prophet was laid in
a tomb carved out of the rock on the Mount of Olives, resurrected on the
third day, just one week after Palm Sunday and then 40 days later, ascended
into heaven -- where "he sitteth upon the right hand of God the Father
Almighty, from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead," as
the Apostles Creed confesses.
2. Palm Sunday is a celebration of his blessed fulfillment of the three
Old Testament offices of prophet, priest and theocratic king, and the grand
conclusion of all of those offices in the one person of our Lord Jesus
Christ. It is a celebration of the fulfillment of these offices,
never again to be held by any other person into eternity without end.
(It is, by the way, the reason we resist the attempt to depict the Christian
clergy as a priesthood.)
It is an acceptance of, a rejoicing in, a theological resting upon the
fulfillment and conclusion of these offices in our Lord and Savior.
Combined with Easter, "The Festival of the Resurrection" one week later,
it should be a joyful acceptance of that meaning and fulfillment.
What action or mentality is called forth on your part by this celebration
of Palm Sunday? More than any other of the celebrations and festivals
of the Christian calendar, this one calls forth a renewed acceptance on
your part of the three offices of Christ: His dear person as the Prophet
of the Triune God; the ultimate Priest in the revealed religion -- being
the one who represents us before God the Father; and the King who commands
our loyalty and obedience.
Palm Sunday should not be just a joyous celebration, but a celebration
with the content of our recommitment of obedience to his kingship over
our lives, our trust in his priesthood in which he continually stands in
our place, representing us before the Father, and his blessed prophethood,
by which he teaches us through his recorded words and through his continuing
office of Teaching Elders in his church, from that day and until the present.
May I ask you a personal question? Do you actually and seriously
see Jesus -- consider him, I mean -- as your King, or as we usually
say, your Lord, (i.e. the focus of your life)? And do you consider
him as your Priest, your Savior -- the one who saved you and who continually
extends the grace of the Triune God to you? And is he your
Prophet -- the one who manifests the Triune God to you through whom
you are able to understand the Father and the Holy Spirit? This anniversary
of Palm Sunday -- probably is the 1,977th one; and in most of those years
it has been observed by the Lord's people. Today it is a time to
reaffirm these things and to ask the Holy Spirit to make them a greater
part of your spiritual life now, and in the days which will follow.
Hymn 235: All glory Laud and honor to thee redeemer king
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